DownWithTyranny!: [12/4/2011] The Violin Concerto may be Tchaikovsky's happiest creation (continued)

Finally, here's the central Canzonetta from the 1968 Oistrakh-Rozhdestvensky-Moscow Phil performance of the Tchaikovsky Concerto.

FIRST, AS PROMISED, LET'S HEAR THE FIRST MOVEMENTS
OF THIS NOBLE SEQUENCE OF D MAJOR VIOLIN CONCERTOS

Note: Before Beethoven, Mozart had written written two D major violin concertos, Nos. 2 and 4 of his five (all quite early works). No. 4 is indeed a wonderful work, and Beethoven may even have had it in his head when he wrote his concerto, but it doesn't seem to me quite to belong in this group. (Mozart's eye-popper in almost-this-genre is the "Sinfonia concertante" for violin, viola, and orchestra, K. 364, which we've already heard.)

Well, there may come a day when I get caught snubbing Mozart, but today isn't it. If only for purposes of scientific inquiry, let's hear the first movement of No. 4 along with the elite circle of D major concertos.

MOZART: Violin Concerto No. 4 in D, K. 218:
i. Allegro
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin and cond. DG, recorded July 2005 [audio link]

NOW BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM --

BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 61:
i. Allegro ma non troppo
Zino Francescatti, violin; Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded Jan. 23 and 26, 1961 [audio file]

BRAHMS: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77:
i. Allegro non troppo
Gil Shaham, violin; Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado, cond. DG, recorded May 2000 [audio link]

WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR CONCERTO DU JOUR

And we're going to hear the first movement of the Tchaikovsky Concerto from the same performances from which we heard the Finale on Friday night. I should probably say something about the music, but I don't think I'm going to.

TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35:
i. Allegro

Jascha Heifetz, violin; Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded Apr. 19, 1957 [audio link]

Isaac Stern, violin; Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy, cond. Columbia/CBS/Sony, recorded Mar. 23, 1958 [audio link]

WAIT! WHO WAS IT WE HEARD PLAY THE BIG
LITTLE THIRD-MOVEMENT SOLO FRIDAY NIGHT?

Before we proceed to the remaining movements of the Tchaikovsky Concerto, we have the unfinished business of identifying Violinists C through F whom we heard playing the big cadenzalike solo near the start of the Finale. (I've refrained from using the word "cadenza," which is what this passage most nearly resembles, because a cadenza is expected to come near the end of a movement, allowing the soloist an opportunity to play with material that's already been exposed and developed.) Violinists A and B, you'll recall, were already identified as Jascha Heifetz and Isaac Stern, whom we heard play the complete Finale on Friday and the first movement today.

C = Arthur Grumiaux (1921-1986; recorded 1975)

D = Nathan Milstein (1904-1992; recorded 1959)

E = Erica Morini (1904-1995; recorded 1956)

F = Pinchas Zukerman (born 1948; recorded 1984)

By uncanny coincidence, these are going to be our go-to fiddlers as we proceed to the conjoined second and third movements. (We already heard Morini in the opening of the first movement, before the click-through, and we're about to hear her play . . . well, you'll see.)

FOR THE RECORD: After this post was laid out end to end, I had a wild inspiration to move the above section identifying Violinists C-F to the end, where I would say, "And you've already heard all of these folks again today . . ." Though I was taken with the idea for a while, I finally decided against it. I still don't know whether it would have been a good idea.

MOVING ON, IN THE CENTER OF THE TCHAIKOVSKY
CONCERTO WE FIND A HAUNTING "CANZONETTA"

As I mentioned Friday night, the "beginning" of the finale isn't really a beginning. In fact, the movement is joined without pause to the preceding Canzonetta (little song), a haunting idyll in more or less A-B-A form in which the "A" theme is, surprisingly, in the minor mode. I should add that I've jiggered this clip to try to fulfill the composer's plan of having the Canzonetta proceed directly into the Finale. The clip runs right up to the launch point for the big little solo we had (I hope) some fun with Friday night.

TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35:
ii. Canzonetta: Andante

Erica Morini, violin; Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London, Artur Rodzinski, cond. Westminster/MCA, recorded Apr. 20, 1956 [audio link]

We have the advantage here of working backwards, and having already heard the finale, does the later section of the Canzonetta not ring a bell? Let's pick up about two-thirds of the way through (at about 4:32 in the Morini recording above), as the soloist is finishing a meditation on the repeat of the minor-key "A" theme, and (at 0:45) the winds reprise the opening chord sequence, and then (at 1:09) the strings launch a section that surely reminds us of the sort of throat-clearing of our big violin solo in the finale. (Of course in the real world the "recollection" works the other way 'round!) Then, to increase our feeling for the linkage between the second and third movements, we'll continue on a bit into the latter.

Pinchas Zukerman, violin; Israel Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta, cond. CBS/Sony, recorded 1984 [audio link]

Now I think we're ready to hear the complete Canzonetta-plus-Finale.

TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35:
ii. Canzonetta: Andante
iii. Allegro vivacissimo

Arthur Grumiaux, violin; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Jan Krenz, cond. Philips, recorded Jan. 1-3, 1975 [audio link]

Nathan Milstein, violin; Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg, cond. Capitol/EMI, recorded Apr. 6, 1959 [audio link]

FINALLY, LET'S LISTEN TO THE WHOLE CONCERTO,
IN JASCHA HEIFETZ'S FIRST RECORDING, FROM 1937

In all, Heifetz made three commercial recordings of the Tchaikovsky Concerto, starting with this 1937 one. With the advent of the LP he redid it in 1950 with Walter Susskind and the Philharmonia Orchestra, and then with the coming of stereo he made the 1957 recording with Reiner and the Chicago Symphony from which we heard the Finale on Friday and the first movement today.

TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto in D, Op. 35:
i. Allegro moderato
ii. Canzonetta: Andante
iii. Allegro vivacissimo

Jascha Heifetz, violin; London Philharmonic Orchestra, John Barbirolli, con. HMV/Victor, recorded Mar. 25, 1937 [audio link: digital transfer by F. Reeder]

Note: F. Reeder has also done a digital transfer of Nathan Milstein's 1940 Columbia recording of the Tchaikovsky Concerto with Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony.

AFTERWORD: ABOUT HEIFETZ AND THE BIG
LITTLE TCHAIKOVSKY CONCERTO SOLO

Probably this should have been a foreword rather than an afterword, since it very likely explains the genesis of this post.

Way back in prehistoric times, when dinosaurs walked the earth and there wasn't yet Public Television but only Educational Television, ETV stations broadcast filmed master classes by both Jascha Heifetz and Pablo Casals. (I see the original release date for the Heifetz series is listed as 1962.) The most vivid image I retain from either is Heifetz working on this very solo from the finale of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with one of his violinists, or rather hectoring the poor fellow about it. I remember not being able to figure out at the time, either from his talking or his playing (he demonstrated whatever it was that he meant) what he was trying to communicate, and it seemed as if the young violinist couldn't either.

Since that time, filmed master classes have become a commonplace. While I've never warmed to the genre, in which conspicuously (and sadly) less wisdom -- or even honest professional craft -- is transmitted than one might hope, I've always wondered what Heifetz was on about in that passage of the Tchaikovsky. As you may have observed, I've never lost my fascination with this chunklet of the piece. In time I noticed that the Heifetz Master Classes had been issued on VHS, but I was too cheap to pay the asking price. Looking recently, I saw that clips from the sessions are on YouTube, but I haven't had the heart to scavenge them. I really should, I know, and not just for the Tchaikovsky bit -- but maybe someone out there can direct us to the appropriate clip?